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I've been meaning to post for days, but between work and D*C planning and failing miserably at trying to complete a project, it just never happened. Not that I had much to say. I did have some True Blood and Doctor Who thoughts which can wait. Short versions: True Blood had two consecutive crappy episodes (I never need to see what goes on in Sookie's head again), but saw improvement this week. As for DW, I'm pretty sure Moffat wrote himself into a corner with River's story and pulled 'Let's Kill Hitler' out of his ass to try to make sense of it all. My verdict? Failure.

I'm off tomorrow...er, later today...for five fun filled and heat filled days in Atlanta. My internet access will by little to none. The hotel charges for internet in the room and hanging out in the lobby doesn't seem practical. But I did decide to enter the 20th Century with my new, smarter, but not smart, phone and I've set it up to text to Twitter! So, I may sporadically tweet. Something exciting might happen. ;) And I'll read any DM's I get, but that's about it.

In related WC news, it seems Jeff Eastin has blocked me from following him on Twitter. O_o I don't know if I mentioned it before, but the man has, proudly, talked about blocking people on Twitter. Now, I support this for people who are being rude, vulgar or creepy. But what did I do?

I've been critical of Season 3. However, for the record, I can't even recall the last time I tweeted Jeff directly. For the past several episodes I've just done general tweets of my thoughts and only occasionally used the #WhiteCollar tag since I didn't wish to a) harsh anyone's squee or b) get into arguments with random people I don't know. So, the only way he could have known about my negativity is if he's trolling White Collar mentions on Tuesday nights. And if you know me (and I think you do), you know I'm not nasty or rude when being critical. Jeff Eastin used to welcome feedback in his early days on Twitter. Now, he only wants to hear from you if you're telling him how awesome his show is and, by extension, how awesome he is.

The kicker is, blocking his tweets from appearing on my feed, does not block me from seeing what he tweets. I can still visit his page and, if you happen to have another account that's also following him, well... ;) So, yeah, it's just so sad and silly. Especially since all the other writers, actors, and directors involved with the show who I follow seem to have no problem with me. :p

In other TV news, who has watched Misfits? After hearing Emilia di Girolamo (head writer for L&O:UK) go on and on about how fabulous the show was, and with Hulu posting Series 1, I decided to give it a try. I have to admit I was not impressed by the first episode and by the second episode I wanted one character to die a horrible, painful death. Emilia assured me I would come to love this character. Series one got better and now I'm three episodes into Series 2 and.....OMG, SO MUCH LOVE! The character I hated? OK, still not feeling LOVE, but I like him a lot! And I do love one character and his incredibly complex storyline! I can see why a writer would be so drawn to the show. Wonderfully developed characters and some intriguing plotting. I also love it when a show has a clear plan and things you largely overlooked before come back to play out in a big way. So, yeah, if you haven't yet seen this show, do check it out. It's like nothing you'll see on US TV.

The time has come to admit White Collar and I aren't enjoying the relationship we once had. And it's not me, it's you and your incredibly inflated I-can-do-no-wrong ego Mr. Eastin. :p If not for Matt Bomer I suspect I would be done, left to cherish two seasons of entertaining TV with iffy plots, yet awesome characters and relationships. So, for now, I can say if Matt's there, so will I be. But I just can't care the way I once did. It would only lead to heartache.

So, now that I'm severely underwhelmed by White Collar, what do I have to look forward to? Gods help me, True Blood. Yeah, it's still ridiculous, but it's managed after three seasons to go from laughably "Why am I watching this crap???" bad to sort-of good. Well, once that Hotshot story was wrapped up...I hope.

That the White Collar portion of this post took four days and the True Blood portion about thirty minutes....um, yeah, I think you can see where my enjoyment is coming from these days. Well, there may also be a BSG post after BBCA wraps up Season 1. ;-)

Good News: For the first time in weeks I'm not buried in work and am healthy!

Bad News: Life has been very weird and drama filled where I live (though I'm not directly affected). I only mention this as a significant reason(s) as to why I'm nearly two weeks behind in White Collar discussions. Though you may consider yourself spared. ;)

I'm not sure what the future will hold for my White Collar posting. At best, the show is wildly uneven this season. I can't say there's been a single episode yet I loved. There were a lot of moments I liked in 'Dentist of Detroit', but then I watched 'Veiled Threat' and there was A LOT I loathed. :/

Of USA's two new series, Necessary Roughness and Suits, Necessary Roughness I'm finding...OK. Like Royal Pains, it's a good show to have on in the background. ;) Suits, however, nearly sends me into rage blackouts. I've watched two episodes (the pilot and last week's) and OMG, IT'S ALL SO WRONG! I work at a law firm. I know how law firms operate. And I know how the attorneys work - what they do, what they don't do, and, oh, yeah, that THEY NEED TO HAVE GRADUATED LAW SCHOOL AND BE A MEMBER OF THE BAR. Argh! I find the whole thing incredibly insulting and cannot watch anymore of it. (OK, standard 'Unless Jamie Bamber guest stars disclaimer.) On the flip side, The Good Wife I do watch and it actually gets a lot of stuff right, if in a slightly more dramatic manner.

Burn Notice - It's Back! Yeah, it never really went away, but I found last season very hard to get through. I even debated giving up, but I'm glad I decided to check out the season premiere. The (sort of) reset has worked really well. As has relegating Jessie to outside help they call in only when needed. ( Cut for potentially spoilery stuff.Collapse )

OK, off to eat dinner and hopefully watch some new L&O:UK. :) Oh! And, if you have the opportunity, check out the most recent (in the US) Graham Norton Show with Ewan McGregor. I've always liked Ewan, but I didn't realize he was made of so much awesome! He essentially stated the original Star Wars trilogy was better than, oh, the one he starred in. Enthusiastically, wielded a replica lightsaber and engaged in a duel. And even more enthusiastically, reenacted his sex scene with Christian Bale in 'Velvet Underground'. O_o

I seem to be having limited success in posting more often. At least this time I have legitimate excuses! Two hellish weeks at work. Then, this past week, just as I was beginning to get back on top of things, I broke out in hives. I can only assume it was triggered by something I ate, but no clue what since I don't have any food allergies. I've been taking Benadryl, which helps, but it also knocks me out. I stayed home from work Friday and slept most of the day away. And I've cut back on the dosage I was taking so I could be more functional and get some things done this weekend, but I'm now finding myself quite jittery. I can't wait for this month to be over. :/

I've been working on this post, off and on, all week. I'm not at the point of being sick of looking at it. Now, I just want to get the sucker done and move on.

My brief, non-spoilery thoughts about Falling Skies: It's not reinventing the genre, but handles the tropes of it well. The characters need a bit more fleshing out, but the cast is likable. And if the premiere failed in one respect, it was in depicting humanity as it's own worst enemy. Like most post-apocalyptic films and series before it, people who were bad prior to the cataclysmic event will likely remain bad. But as The Walking Dead showed, it doesn't mean those bad guys have to be one dimensional.

Last Sunday, I watched the season finales of Game of Thrones and The Killing. While the former I felt had some pacing issues, it was a masterful piece of storytelling compared to the latter. I'm sure you are all well aware of the vitriol unleashed by both critics and fans (and a fair share of actors and writers on my Twitter feed) as soon as The Killing ended. The two best insta-reactions were Maureen Ryan's review and NY Magazine's hilarious and spot on recap.

I'm going to lump my thoughts about the last two White Collar episodes together. It's probably a good thing I held off posting about 'Where There's a Will' since 'Deadline' helped to alleviate some of my concerns and make me feel a bit better the season to date.

I have a couple of general comments I want to put out there before getting down to the nitty-gritty of this week's White Collar. Since my first comment is only tangentially related to the show (and fairly brief) I'll forgo the cut tag.

I'd fallen victim, as many of us have, to the 'OMG, if I don't post right away, no one is going to care what I have to say!' mentality. And that may very well be true! ;) However, I've noticed both more frequently and more egregiously this is just not affecting the writing of fans, but of the media paid to talk about shows. More and more I see typos, lack of punctuation, words repeated or left out, all of which leads me to having to read a sentence numerous times to try and figure out what information they are trying to convey. When I watch a TV show late in the even, perhaps chat about it on twitter, and then am swamped with work the rest of the week it's going to be at least a few days before I can get around to posting my thoughts. If my intention is to be thoughtful, not have *too* many errors and, ultimately, have it be something I wasn't embarrassed to have written. I'm just feeling everyone - fans, bloggers, journalists, etc - in a rush to be heard too sacrifice quality for speed. Maybe that's why LJ has been so much quieter lately, It's not because we don't care anymore, it's because we still do. And we need to be passionate about a subject, and give it the time it deserves to be discussed, or else why bother?

And a reminder for my fellow Battlestar Galactica/Jamie Bamber fans: BBC America relaunches the show at 10pm est tonight, following the mid-season finale of Doctor Who, before moving into it's regular time slot of 7pm est next Saturday. There will be an open discussion thread at jamiebambernews if anyone feels inclined to chat about the show. :)

It's been three months since I last posted. Whudaya want to make of it? ;p To be honest, I've come to conclusion that unless there is something I really feel strongly about discussing - such as White Collar returning tomorrow night - I have little interest in posting. And Twitter has eaten my brain. And jamiebambernews can take up quite a bit of time, at least when Jamie has a project in the works. So, yeah, I don't think my LJ posting is ever going to be what it once was and I'm OK with it.

I actually had a list of shows that I intended to post some thoughts on, but the fall season is over and it now seems rather pointless. But I did want to dust off my posting skills before White Collar's third season premiere and my weekends movie and TV viewing did get me to thinking.

Who decided to start filming 17th Precinct as White Collar closes out it's second season? Having two active fandoms at once (And one isn't officially a fandom yet, is it?) is not something I'm used to. Yes, it's all about ME! ;p

Sometime late Friday night I realized I had failed to post about White Collar. Yes, it was that kind of week. Then, Saturday was spent at The Child's (TM her mother, please do not be thinking I suddenly have a child!) first birthday and Sunday was lazing about and catching up on all the TV I missed. US version of Shameless you are really growing on me and I'm glad you got a second season pickup. :)

Oh, there was also some news this week about 17th Precinct Did you hear? Yeah, that took up some of my time and a lot of my squee. It also reinforced that as much as I enjoy White Collar and like Matt Bomer they just can't compare to how I feel about BSG and Jamie Bamber. Seriously, I have never been as excited about any moment on White Collar as I've been about each shred of news about 17th Precinct, which won't even begin shooting the pilot until tomorrow! This is what Jamie and a reunion of some of my favorite BSG people can do to me. Now, I just need to wait and see if NBC will rip my heart out and stomp on it. With the cast and crew this pilot has, one would think it would have to be absolute garbage not to be picked up to series, right?

It's become obvious with each passing day that Ron Moore has a talented group of people, both in front of and behind the camera, he turns to when developing a new series. Who knows what tomorrow will bring is taking on new meaning. ;) As of right now, Michael Rymer, Jamie Bamber, James Callis and Tricia Helfer are working on 17th Precinct. We all hope NBC orders the pilot to series, but should they do something really dumb (it is NBC after all) I'm sure it won't be the last time these people work together.

So, I've been thinking. Shakespeare had Lord Chamberlains Men and Orson Wells had The Mercury Theatre troupe. While I am in NO WAY comparing Ron to either of those giants, it would be fun to have a name for Ron's go-to group. Thus far, Moore's SITRepertory Company is the only idea I've had. You can probably see why I need help with this. I open the floor to better suggestions. Or you can go ahead and mock me. I'm just so happy the band is getting back together! :)